Moriking conquers the police.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tomohiro Hasegawa
Translation: Paul Starr
What They Say
Third-grader Shota Aikawa’s pet beetle evolves from a larva to a pupa to a superhot human! The wacky adventures of the Aikawa family and the fabulous beetle who would be king now begins! You’re gonna LARVA this new comedy manga!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
What a week for a chapter on Moriking encountering the police to come out. Tomohiro Hasegawa was going to have to deal with Moriking’s getting more known and touching upon the way more in city government or authority was going to have to encounter and deal with him. Hasegawa leans into it in a mixed kind of way here that’s both comical and all too real as we get an experienced copy with thirty years on the beat and a rookie that literally panics and shoots at Moriking. The optics aren’t the best at all but through it all we get to see Moriking handle it with the grace of a king.
With Shota running home to get Shoko to come and help, the two local officers have found Moriking and are convinced he’s a deviant and a threat to public safety. Moriking doesn’t help his case much when he offers to answer all their questions as he removes his shirt but the elder cop does his best to be professional and ask the questions. And as ridiculous as the honest answers are, he’s got the experience to understand when someone is telling him the truth. The out that he gets is when Shota tells him that Moriking is his pet rhinoceros beetle as that has the cop believing that Moriking may just be brainwashed. But with some picture proof of his feats, well, the cop is definitely unsure while the younger one is trigger happy and panicky.
Things go from bad to worse in its own way when an actual thief is called out nearby for stealing the groceries from someone and the cops aren’t sure which they should really deal with at this point because both are threats. It’s Moriking that springs into action and as she shows off his true abilities here, it basically defuses the whole situation in a big way as the cops simply don’t know what to make of it. And rightly so, how do you put down on your report what Moriking did? It’s cute and silly but the timing of the chapter is just way too awkward overall and I can imagine a lot of people just aren’t all that interested in reading a story about a couple of cops at the moment.
In Summary:
Moriking has been a fun series so far and it’s easy to overlook certain story elements simply because there are things in how manga plays out that you accept. This one doesn’t handle the cops well as it doesn’t really deal with his presence there, how they’re actually going to handle it going forward, and what to do when situations get more problematic. Moriking’s reputation is getting out there more and this is going to be a problem that has to be addressed at some point. And hopefully with less of the incredibly panicky cop that’s shooting at Moriking for absolutely no reason.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: June 7th, 2020
